I like the idea of Portland signing Jason Kidd. I think that would be a very good signing.

I look at Jerryd Bayless’ potential as a Ben Gordon type of player. Except more of a slasher, versus the shooter that Gordon is.

Why take chance on a guy who can become the next Ben Gordon when you can get the Ben Gordon right now? Unless, of course, you think Bayless has even more potential than that.

It depends on how much faith you have on the kids improving offensively versus defensively.

Defensively

I think Martell Webster would have the Blazers best perimeter defender last season had he been healthy. His return will help improve their defense.

I think Greg Oden was poor defensively as a rookie, but that he will improve tremendously on that end of the floor over the next year or two. Once he gets his defense to a high level, then Portland will have 48 minutes of excellent defense from the center position. And the Blazers were a very good defensive team while Przybilla was on the floor, the problems grew when he was on the bench … and Oden’s improvement fixes that hole and makes them a very good defense without other improvements or additions, assuming Oden can actually improve his defense, which I feel very good about.

The third player is Batum. I rate him as a slightly above average defender presently, but he has incredible defensive potential and should be become a very good to elite defender within a few seasons.

I also think Brandon Roy can improve his defense if Portland can reduce some of the offensive burden that is on his shoulders.

Less Welcome Thoughts Defensively

I think the Blazers would make a massive improvement defensively by moving Rudy Fernandez, Travis Outlaw and LaMarcus Aldridge.

I think Rudy Fernandez is the worst defender on the team, and that Aldridge’s poor team defense is a major problem because of the large number of minutes that he plays.

In the end, I see them keeping Rudy and Aldridge but moving Outlaw. That’s something I guess.

Offensively

I think Greg Oden is the best option for improvement. I think his immediate attention needs to be on improving his defense though, so I’d rather he concentrated on that for the next two years and worked on his offensive game after he progresses defensively.

Aldridge? I’m not confident enough to depend on his improvement. His scoring efficiency badly needs to improve.

Rudy Fernandez and Travis Outlaw look the two next best options. At this stage, I think Outlaw is what he is, and don’t expect much more improvement from him.

Rudy Fernandez has very good potential offensively, but I don’t like his D. They’d have to play Roy at the three more often in order to give Rudy more minutes — which is something I’d rather avoid. It would make Portland quite small on the perimeter, and give them a very weak perimeter defense, unless of course Rudy improves his D.

Then there’s Jerryd Bayless. Good potential as a scorer. Not sure how likely he is to fulfill that potential though.

Summary

I have a lot more confidence in the internal options to improve defensively than offensively.

There’s lots of very good-to-great options in free agency for the Blazers …

Unfortunately for Blazers fans though, Kevin Pritchard is planning on bringing back Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw, and in turn limiting the Blazers cap space this offseason. Which will consequently make it more difficult for Portland to win a title in the near future.